SAN JOSE — After hearing sharply divided, impassioned pleas about charter schools, the Santa Clara County Board of Education managed to meet most of the advocates halfway.

On split votes on two charter schools proposed for Morgan Hill, the board approved Voices College-Bound Language Academy, a Spanish-English immersion school, then turned down a petition from Gilroy-based Navigator Schools.

Both schools had been rejected by the Morgan Hill Unified School District, and came to the board on appeal.

With both votes, board members apologized to those it couldn”t please. It was a small step in dialing down the acrimony surrounding charter schools, which are public schools operated independently and freed from most state education law. For several years the county school board has served as the lightning rod in that debate, with its approval of more than 40 charter school petitions over the objection of local school district officials. Several of those districts have sued the county board over charter-school approval.

On California”s comparison of schools with similar demographics, last year both Voices San Jose and Navigator”s Gilroy Prep scored the highest, a 10, while Morgan Hill”s four schools in the neighborhoods targeted by the charters ranked at the bottom, from 1 to 4.

Also with emotion, Morgan Hill district administrators, teachers and parents boasted of their schools” progress and dismissed the two charter proposals.

“We have very little support from the actual community in Morgan Hill for these schools,” Morgan Hill Superintendent Steve Betando said.

“I think the division that exists is so unfortunate,” said trustee Joseph Di Salvo, before joining a 6-to-1 vote to approve Voices. Trustee Anna Song dissented. If the school is successful, Di Salvo hopes that the Morgan Hill district could take over as the oversight agency in three years. The board rejected the Navigator proposal for Morgan Hill Prep Charter School, largely over questions over its academic and organizational plans.

“I”m beyond sad,” said trustee Darcie Green, who after midnight led the 4-3 rejection, joined by Di Salvo, Song and trustee Michael Chang. By then, the crowd of 150 people had dwindled to a few dozen. “I know how hard you work and how much you believe in your school and how much these parents have your back 150 percent,” Green said to Navigator co-founder James Dent. But she cited an inconsistency in answers and an apparent lack of understanding of state requirements.

Dent appeared to switch narratives in answering questions from board members and the County Office of Education staff. “It is hard to describe what we do in our schools because it is very innovative,” he said. Children are progressing, but about the charter petition, he said, “what we wrote in the summer is not at all what we”re doing four months later. We are the R&D for southern Santa Clara County.”

Navigator has the option to appeal to the State Board of Education. Voices hopes to open its Morgan Hill school in August.